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 These headphones, in my opinion, are not as bad as most people say... I think it depends what one will use them for. I bought these headphones _specifically_ for airplane travel. I don't use them on the street or at home or anywhere else except on a plane. I flew over 50 hours this past christmas and I have to say they worked reasonably well. Noise cancelling headphones are _not_ noise eliminating headphones and these are not the exception. They cancel low frequencies to low-mid frequencies pretty well. The "in ear" design is similar to more expensive earbuds (like fontopia or shure) BUT it obviously does not do such a great job as fontopia or shure do (fontopia and shure are all 200+ for the high end phones). Once you turn the noise canceling "on" most low frequencies drown and you are left with a pleasant faint white noise (to me its pleasant) which is really not a problem when in a plane.
They seem pretty durable. The cord is covered with a seemingly durable nylon wound cloth thingy... the headphones seem pretty strong, and the noise canceling unit operates on one single AAA battery. The frequency range is adequate but as with most earbud headphones bass is a bit lacking... not too bad for movie watching on the plane and millions of times better than the headphones they give you on the plane. Finally the cost really makes them appealing. (...)
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Obviously these don't work as well as the $300 Bose Noise Reducing headphones, but Phillips gives you the portability and lightweight that the Bose headphones lack. In addition, these earbuds still cancel out most of the background noise. I used these on a recent trip and the fit nice in my stuffed briefcase and blocked out the ambient noise of the plane and quited crying babies. Highly recommend if you need noice reduction and lightweight, portability.
The HN060 noise reduction has some positives and negatives. At first I wasn't sure if the earbuds things would fit into my ears in the beginning according to the previous review. Yet, they fit well enough (not perfect), and don't seem to hurt, but of course it depends on your ear I suppose. With the noise cancellation off, the sound is somewhat less than the source audio. Yet, if you turn on the noise cancellation, the source audio may sound slightly louder. With noise cancellation off, there is a good amount of mid to upper response. The base is not that strong, and would need a equalizer to adjust for this. When the noise cancellation is on, the base comes in with a slightly more punch, and lower end response. I may need to get used to inserting these in the ear, but I don't think you need to shove them to where they disappear into your ear. Noise cancellation does cancel out a certain range, but the range it cancels out doesn't seem be a wide enough frequency.
Part of my career as an engineer was in the field of vibration and sound. The hn060 I received as a gift is a phony. The only outside noise this unit suppresses is the fact you have a plug in your ear. The so called noise reduction is a filter on the low frequency of the sound coming in through the wire plug. If you like your lows suppressed and the highs screetching, this is the unit for you. Anthony Lin of Audio File explains the technicalities of a true noise suppression system and after some non-related story telling says this thing really helped him during a flight. My reading between the lines is that he really felt he had to strech things abit. But things are tough all over.
